I’m less worried now about 3 Body Problem‘s prospects for getting a second season order from Netflix. That’s because, for the third week in a row, the alien invasion series ticked a box that was an absolute must if Netflix was going to continue with the show — and it’s that the series, from the Game of Thrones showrunners and True Blood‘s Alexander Woo, has racked up so much viewership that it’s now the #1 Netflix show in the world.
That milestone is based on the latest data from the streamer’s regularly updated global Top 10 chart, the details of which we’ll get into below.
Netflix Top 10 shows (April 8-April 14)
To learn more about some of the top series below, you can go deeper by checking out our previous coverage of several of the Netflix originals on this list, from the Guy Ritchie gangster romp The Gentlemen to an eye-opening docuseries about life behind bars, as well as Baby Reindeer — Netflix’s buzzy new series that dramatizes the impact of a stalker on a British comedian.
This week’s complete list of the Top 10 English-language shows on Netflix includes:
- 3 Body Problem (Season 1)— 4.8 million views
- Unlocked: A Jailhouse Experiment (Season 1) — 3.9 million views
- The Gentlemen (Season 1) — 3.7 million views
- Bad Dinosaurs (Season 1) — 3.1 million views
- Baby Reindeer — 2.6 million views
- Ripley — 2.5 million views
- Heartbreak High (Season 2) — 2.3 million views
- Files of the Unexplained (Season 1) — 2.2 million views
- Testament: The Story of Moses (Season 1) — 2.1 million views
- I Woke Up a Vampire (Season 2) — 1.6 million views
Next, let’s zero in on the biggest Netflix TV release in the world this week.
3 Body Problem — #1 on Netflix
At this point, there’s not much else left to say about 3 Body Problem, which remains the top-ranked Netflix show in the world. Its many complexities, dense plotting, and high-level science have all been pored over, as have some of the most unforgettable scenes like that so-called “struggle session” at the beginning that conservatives turned into viral X/Twitter fodder.
The only thing that’s still waiting to be addressed is whether or not Netflix will re-up the show for another season. In a new interview, the three showrunners teased their plan for the show to get “really wild in the best possible way” in season two, which will take the show far into the future (and promises even more context with the show’s alien race).
For now, at least, this big and ambitious show is a Top 10 Netflix show in 93 countries around the world. Mind you, that’s not to says this is a perfect show by any means. Its flaws include thinly drawn characters, as well as the jarring feeling you might experience as a viewer given the way the show leaps back and forth across time. But that said, if you’re so inclined, there’s a lot of grand ideas to explore and enjoy here — like the importance of science to a civilization’s survival. And what we as human beings owe the unborn generations to come.
If you’ve already watched 3 Body Problem, you don’t need to be reminded of the fact that it calls for intense preparation for an alien invasion that’s centuries away. A manifestation, you could argue, of an old Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.”